One previously proposed method of flavouring a conventional smoking article such as a cigarette was to spray the tobacco rag with liquid flavourant prior to manufacture of the cigarette. This method was unsatisfactory as the flavourant tended to migrate throughout and away from the cigarette. The spraying of the flavourant led to contamination of the production machinery and also of the waste offals and fines making them unsuitable for reprocessing. Also volatile materials in the tobacco tended to be lost by evaporation during the production process.
Another previously proposed method of providing a cigarette with additional flavour is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,347 in the name of R. J. Reynolds. In this patent streaks of flavour impregnated starch paste were applied to the wrapper which was wrapped around the tobacco rod. This method undesirably altered the physical properties and the appearance of the cigarette paper. Also the capacity of the cigarette paper to take flavour additives is far less than that of the tobacco in the fuel rod.
It has also been proposed to add flavour to the filter element of a conventional cogarette. The drawback of this technique was that the location of the flavour was so remote from the burning coal that the less volatile component of the flavour only reached a noticeable concentration in the smoke in the later puffs during smoking.